Ukraine – Week 2, Day 1

We had a very productive day at the orphanage, and were very well received! We met with the orphanage director in the morning, and he was very excited and thankful to have us there.

Kara and Amy had a very good day that was slow-paced. It allowed them to spend a lot of time with each of the kids that they saw. They spent quite a bit of time in the baby room, and they felt like this early intervention was very important. Olga told us that she saw several of the caregivers demonstrating our therapy techniques with the kids after we left the room. Kara and Amy enjoyed more time in group 4, especially with Lena. She loved the little vibrating toy we had, and was very purposeful in picking it. Several caregivers were concerned about some of the kids not making any sounds, so Amy and Kara also worked on various speech sounds with the kids.

PT and OT had lots of great highlights today as well. They spent quality time in room 4 with Daniel, Lena, Paulina, Vanya and Kyriel. The caregivers were very open to our ideas and encouraged us to continue showing treatment. Due to Daniel’s seizure disorder, the caregivers were instructed by the neurologist to limit his movement. However, they let us take him out of his crib today. He enjoyed the interaction and really lit up while we were playing with him! Paulina was fitted with braces and stood in a walker and walked for the first time! By request, Danielle and Kati taught infant massage to the caregivers. And Sasha has been walking independently in his walker around his room – which is a huge improvement from last year!

Mike, an equipment specialist, was able to problem-solve how to get standers made more efficiently here in Ukraine. He fixed all the broken standers at the orphanage and built 5 more standers today! He also put together wheelchairs, walkers and wedges for the kids. Tomorrow he will spend the entire day working at the local factory to design new blueprints and help with the existing ones in order to continue to provide various pieces of equipment.

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